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I recall in the books at least a few times the wildlings referred to themselves as being wildlings. Even watching the show they do.

It seems as if it's like they recognize that others call them that and it seems self-deprecating and almost against the plot.

Is it ever mentioned why they would do that instead of calling themselves by more common names such as the tribes of the Vale do?

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    Can you provide some examples to support your question? The wildlings generally refer to themselves as "Free Folk". While those South of the Wall disparagingly call the Free Folk "wildlings" due to their lack of governance and disorder, the Free Folk in turn refer to those South of the Wall as "Kneelers".
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 7:48
  • The answer to this question is: They don't. I don't remember them ever doing it.
    – TLP
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 10:19
  • "I don't remember them ever" - in the show I know Gilly tells Sam "My mother told me no wildling can look upon the wall and live" which sparked the question for me but I will look up more references
    – PW Kad
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 12:30
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    "We are wild and crazy guys!" - Mance Rayder, maybe?
    – KSmarts
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 15:09
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    @PWKad When you are asking for an explanation to an exception to a rule, it is quite important to be specific. Why did the wildlings refer to themselves as wildlings? The answer is, they didn't. If you want to ask about a specific event, please name that event. I would say that questions about the show are irrelevant, because they can have trivial answers, like for example the Gilly quote you refer to, you can't actually say "free folk" in singular. "No free folk could look upon the wall..." doesn't work, and "No free person" would not be interpreted as "wildling".
    – TLP
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 17:33

3 Answers 3

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Actually, the wildlings refer to themselves as 'Free Folk' more often than not.

They refer to themselves as such, to distinguish themselves from the 'kneelers' (those who kneel to a king; those that are south of the Wall).

'Wildlings' is a term people withing the Seven Kingdoms call them; they use that term to emphasize that they are lawless and not civilized like they are.

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    Plus it depends with whom they speak. To a foreigner I introduce myself as a German one, not "I am a Deutscher", just because they're more used to their term. Bad example, but I guess you get the point.
    – Trollwut
    Commented Apr 10, 2015 at 10:16
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In-world explanation

Some free folk may take pride in the "wildlings" label - to one person "wild" may mean "lawless", but to another person it may mean "free" and "untamed". The free folk are proud of their freedom and disparaging of those south of the Wall (who they see as lacking freedom, and call "kneelers"). I can therefore see how a wildling might want to take ownership of the word for themselves, to redefine it and use it for their own purposes.

Out of world

(Particularly in the TV show) the term "wildlings" may have been used in dialogue in order to avoid confusing audiences who may not know/may have forgotten that free folk / wildlings are synonymous. An example of such a change that has been made to the show for the same reason is Asha Greyjoy's name.

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    Any references to support this answer?
    – Daft
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 8:22
  • @daft not at this time, the question is lacking in specific examples hence the generic answer. Believe my logic is sound however. For the out of world answer I would point out there are many e.g.s of changes made to the GOT story to simplify it for viewers, e.g. Asha Greyjoy's name.
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 8:45
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    If it's entirely opinion based, it should probably be a comment.
    – Daft
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 8:50
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    I can therefore see how a wildling might want to take ownership of the word for themselves... sounds like an opinion to me. Even a single reference to back up your conclusions would be appreciated.
    – Daft
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 8:55
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    @daft will leave it to the community to decide. I see answers that are A LOT more speculative and opinionated on this site which are upvoted and accepted answers.
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Commented Apr 9, 2015 at 9:10
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They don't

The people from Beyond-The-Wall call themselves "Free Folk", almost exclusively.

Evidence
There are only two times that a "wildling" uses the word "wildling" to refer to themselves (within the books), and both are in A Dance With Dragons#.

  1. The first one is in the scene where "Rattleshirt" (actually Mance "glamoured" as Rattleshirt, so we'll call him "RattleMance") is talking to Jon and Mel, and he says:

    “Are we talking about betrayals? What was the name of that wildling wife of yours, Snow? Ygritte, wasn’t it?” The wildling turned to Melisandre.
    -A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five - A Dance With Dragons, Chapter Thirty-One (Melisandre I).

    This could easily be a slip of the tongue by the author, or even a turn-of-phrase by RattleMance, since he's in the company of "Southerners"@ and he's talking to a "Southerner".

  2. The other is Tormund speaking to Jon after Jon gave his speech about going after Ramsay at the hall:

    "Well spoken, crow. Now bring out the mead! Make them yours and get them drunk, that's how it's done. We'll make a wildling o' you yet, boy. Har!"
    -A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five - A Dance With Dragons, Chapter Sixty-Nine (Jon XIII).

    Again, in this case, Tormund is in the "South" and he's talking to a "Southerner"; using their venacular.

The University of Ygritte
Additionally, Jon Snow explains to his sort-of cousin, Alys Karstark, that they call themselves "Free Folk":

"So," said Alys, as Jon poured, "I am now a woman wed. A wildling husband with his own little wildling army."
"Free folk is what they call themselves. Most, at least. The Thenns are a people apart, though. Very old." Ygritte had told him that. You know nothing, Jon Snow.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five - A Dance With Dragons, Chapter Fourty-Nine (Jon X).

See, he does know some things!

Show-canon
This brings us to the show - Game of Thrones - within which the Free Folk seem to constantly call themselves "wildlings".

I chalk this up to two reasons:

  1. The show writers/creators don't want to confuse people. And yes I will withhold my rant about how they think viewers are 'dumb'.
  2. The show writers/creators don't see or understand the nuances in the cultures.

Both are equally as likely.

# I know this because I searched my e-books for the term "wildling" and read each part to see who was saying the word. I also use A Search of Ice and Fire.

@ To the Free Folk, anything below the Wall is considered "South", as explained by Ygritte in A Clash of Kings:

“Bael the Bard made it,” said Ygritte. “He was King-beyond-the--Wall a long time back. All the free folk know his songs, but might be you don’t sing them in the south.”
“Winterfell’s not in the south,” Jon objected.
“Yes it is. Everything below the Wall’s south to us.”
He had never thought of it that way. “I suppose it’s all in where you’re standing.”
“Aye,” Ygritte agreed. “It always is.”
-A Song of Ice and Fire, Book Two: A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fifty-One (Jon VI).

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